A CONCURRENT REOLUTION COMMEMORATING APRIL 24, 1990, AS A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915-1923

WHEREAS, During the genocide perpetrated by the governments of the Ottoman Empire, 1.5 million people of Armenian ancestry were victims from 1915 to 1923. At the outbreak of World War I, the Young Turk regime decided to deport the entire Armenian population of about 1.75 million to Syria and Mesopotamia. Talaat Pasha, leader of the Young Turk movement, was the principal author of the plan to exterminate the Armenians. The plan of genocide consisted of deporting all Armenians of whatever age or condition of health to the totally barren Der-El-Zor region of what is now Syria; and

WHEREAS, The Armenians were rounded up, brutally driven from their homes and their land, separated from families, robed of everything they owned, and stripped of possessions they carried with them. On a death march to Der-El-Zor, more than a million died of starvation or were killed. Thousands of Christian Armenians were tortured and murdered for refusing to accept Islam as their religion. The atrocities inflicted on Armenians in concentration camps and on death marches to Der-El-Zor in the Syrian desert resemble those of the Holocaust of World War II; and

WHEREAS, The massacre of Armenians who escaped deportation and remained in Turkey was called the "most colossal crime of all ages" by the examining American military mission's report to the U.S. Congress. In a telegram sent by U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the secretary of state. Morgenthau warned that "a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion"; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (the Senate concurring), That the Michigan Legislature commemorates April 24, 1990, as a day of remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Michigan Legislature calls upon the people of Michigan to observe that day by remember the 1.5 million people of Armenians ancestry who lost their lives during that terrible time.

Adopted by the House of Representatives, March 27, 1990
Adopted by the Senate, March 28, 1990